Cat has fleas. AIBU?

[springboardflower]

I have a strictly indoors pedigree cat. She has never been outdoors, unless going on visits to the vets etc.

I took her to the vet on Monday for a general health check, and the vet found flea dirt in her fur. No actual fleas, just one bit of flea dirt. She informed me that my cat had fleas and sold me a treatment and spray for the house (totalling £90!)

I asked her how the cat had managed to get fleas as she has never been outside, and only had contact with other cats when she was very little. The vet told me that fleas:

• Will jump on humans clothes and be carried inside
• Will jump into open windows and infest the cat
• If the cat goes near any outside doors she can pick up fleas
• Hoovering can reactivate dormant fleas
• Even if you don't have animals, fleas will still enter and live in your home (?!)

I have never seen fleas in my house. Never had any bites. Never seen the cat scratching excessively. I hoover and clean multiple times a day due to having small children.

AIBU to think it seems insane to spray my house with chemicals, then repurchase all these chemicals for the duration of the cats life, if its an inevitability (according to the vet) that there will be fleas?! It just seems insane!!

If you are treating the cat monthly already then I wouldn't worry especially if there has been no bites and the cat hasn't been scratching

The vet told me that even if you don't have animals, fleas will still live and survive in homes inhabited by humans. So surely everyone should be flea treating their homes

Indorex is the spray. I didn't know it lasted a year!! I will spray carpets and soft furnishings like sofa. Keep up with the stronghold treatment every month, or maybe switch as it's clearly not worked?

Indoor cat here, but lives with outdoorsy dog.

Both are treated monthly with whatever it is the vet sells us on their plans. I don't pay attention to the names.

Never treated the house, not even when indoor cat did have fleas (before the dog), which I brought home from a flea infested kitten I met in a skanky house.

We have fleas...its a nightmare. Bought indorex for 8 pounds off amazon.

ZogTheOrangeDragon A flea treatment will only stop infestation in the environment if it prevents the larval stage of the flea too or sterilises the flea preventing it from laying eggs. If the treatment only kills the adult flea, it won't do much for the environment. Stronghold doesn't sterilise the flea or inhibit the larval stage.

SpringboardFlower The life cycle of the flea is 21 days. Without an animal to feed on they will die out. Someone without pets doesn't need to treat their home, unless there was a heavy infestation in there previously by someone who did have pets. Even then it would only need a one off treatment with Indorex or something like that.

OP, you do know that both humans and anomals have to stay out of rooms treated with Indorex for three hours at least as it is a neurotoxin?

Mia184 That makes me even more uneasy to use it. It also says on the bottle that it kills fish and aquatic life?!

I also doused the house in ant powder in the summer, we had a terrible ant problem. So god knows how fleas have survived through that unless she picked it up very recently.

SpringboardFlower just do one room at a time with the Indorex. Keep all animals out, air it for a few hours, then move onto another room. Concentrate around the edges especially under radiators. Floorboards will need doing too if there are cracks in between. Unfortunately flea eggs get everywhere!

My understanding was that you need a pet for the fleas to survive (and cause an infestation) so non pet households wouldn't have an issue.

With a pet the last thing you want is for your pet to cause a big flea infestation. I moved into a rented house once that had one as the previous tenants had cats that they clearly didn't treat and it was awful. I could see them jump on me just walking about and we had to get the professionals in to fumigate the place.

Oh god, I'm prepared to be be shot down here.

I have two house cats who have never been outside, had them three years and never used a flea treatment because they have never had fleas.

I check them regularly because I am a horse, dog and chicken owner and all the animals have all been in the house at some point and I am mindful they or I may bring something in

I guess I need to start treating the cats

BayandBlonde some people are happy to only treat when they see evidence of fleas.

Nothing wrong with that approach if you prefer it but I have a dog and prefer to treat regularly as it's part of his worming and tick treatment anyway.

Buy diatomous earth (check spelling online) and treat everything with that, much better than chemicals.

@BiteyShark after reading this thread and seeing just how many house cats still get fleas that aren't in contact with other animals, mine are higher risk so I'm def going to start treating them

DH is a pest controller of 20 years. He doesn’t treat our dog unless he has fleas. These people that treat their animals very month are giving them chemicals needlessly. They don’t stop your animal getting fleas. The treatments you put in your car or dog mean that any fleas that are already on them die after feeding. It has no impact on flea eggs and the eggs can be dormant for a long time. When our dog had fleas we treated him as well as hoovering the entire house, sofa cushions etc to make sure we hoovered up any eggs, then washed everything we could at 60degrees. Then DH sprayed all the cracks and crevices with stuff that kills the eggs. This is nothing you can buy over the counter, only a licences pest controller can buy it. We then had to leave the house for 4 hours so we didn’t get affected by the chemicals.

The cynical side of me is starting to think 'flea dirt' is bollocks.

Our cat and dogs always get treated monthly (since we got the first dog)

The dogs (and the house) once got fleas and it was a nightmare, properly grim. Had to beg the vets for a more effective treatment for the dogs, and indorex everything twice. Not had a problem since.

If there's a single flea it will bite me and I react so I know straight away. I get bitten at other people's houses when 'their dog doesn't have fleas'.

I have never, ever, seen a flea on the cat (and he's white) but he always has 'flea dirt' but zero fleas when the vet checks him, before, during, and after we had our one flea issue. He must borrow them when he's out on the town and not bring them home or to the vets.

Before we had the dogs we were more lax about treatment for the cats, this one still always had flea dirt, but still a flea never materialised.

I just treat him with the vets stuff now (once we mention we treat already they seem to think the flea dirt is no longer a problem?) and don't worry about the dirt. His invisible fleas aren't bothering anyone else at the moment.

(Obviously if I ever see a flea I'll change treatment and do the house, but I would worry for 'flea dirt' anymore)

Mia184 That makes me even more uneasy to use it. It also says on the bottle that it kills fish and aquatic life?!

OP, WebMD has a page on fleas and cats: pets.webmd.com/cats/guide/flea-prevention#1 They suggest flea treatment on the cat and vaccuming daily plus washing blankets and other fabrics your cat touches weekly.

I've got house cats. None of them have ever had fleas. I still treat them just in case.

Frlrlrubert I've got to say I am going the same way. I had outdoor cats growing up, we treated them every month and they always had 'flea dirt.' My mum refused to spray chemicals around the house as she is very natural and has sensitive skin. We never got bit or had an infestation. In fact we never ever saw fleas in the 20 years we had the cats.

This is my first indoor cat - she is a white ragdoll. I am going to continue to treat her, I must say I am dubious about using the spray. I hoover multiple times a day and I am generally a very clean person. Beddings, sheets etc. all get washed once a week on a hot wash.

I would rather not spray my house with chemicals to be honest with you, but I am very freaked out at the thought of her having fleas and the possibility of infestation!

If you don't have an infestation just treat the cat, vacuum regularly and wash any cat blankets or beds on 60.

If you have an infestation you will see fleas on your cat, on yourself, you'll see the eggs anywhere your cat lies down for a while and if your look closely you'll see wriggling larvae about the place.

I believe it's the pupae that can survive a long time, and the spray won't kill them. The spray will only kill the larvae and the adult fleas, so you want to 'activate' them or you're just prolonging the problem.

@Frlrlrubert worth remembering that fleas don't live on the cat. They live in the places the cat sleeps. So you can have flea dirt but not see any fleas on the cat.

If you see lots of fleas on your cat you quite probably have an infestation.

I treat ours in the summer because that's the only time of year we've ever had a problem. And that's only been about 3 or 4 times in 25 years of cat ownership and it's been easy to deal with.

I read that a single cat flea will bite a human (or other animal) in the absence of a cat, and can survive for a few weeks or a few months on non cat blood. However, the cat flea needs to feed on a cat if it is to reproduce.

I also read that it's common for people to discover their pet has fleas, treat them with drops and then keep the treated animal out of bedrooms or main living areas for a while because they're a bit horrified about the fleas. This is totally counter productive as your treated cat is a walking flea killer (flea will die once it bites it's preferred host) and you need to send that treated cat into all the rooms to get those fleas killed!

Lastly - sprinkling simple cheap fine salt (£1 a bag in tesco) around the edges of your rooms where carpet or flooring meets skirting, in the creases of stair treads, behind sofas, against the edges of heavy furniture ect, will help kill off fleas without the harsh chemicals of sprays ect. Apparently the salt dehydrates the eggs/lavae which kills them off. This is good if you have little DCs who crawl about and you don't want them getting chemicals on them.

Here endeth the flea lesson!

springboardflower we have white ragdolls as well :)

The walking flea bag herself